• November 4, 2004

Presidential election night coverage among the six major national news outlets - ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC - totaled a 34.5 rating and averaged 55.051 million viewers between 8 and 11 p.m. (ET), according to estimates released late Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research. That places the aggregate delivery of the election coverage below CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XXXVIII, which generated a 41.4 rating and 89.8 million viewers, the highest-rated event carried by a single network this year. NBC, which featured Tom Brokaw's last election night as news anchor, generated the highest election night results, reaching 15.2 million viewers, followed by ABC (13.2 million) and CBS (9.5 million). Fox News Channel dominated the cable pack with 8.1 million viewers, followed by CNN (6.2 million) and MSNBC (2.8 million). The Fox broadcast network also aired two hours of prime-time coverage, which averaged a 3.1 rating and 4.7 million viewers. Univision dominated coverage among Spanish-language networks with 2.7 million viewers, followed by Telemundo (0.7 million) and Telefutura (0.6 million).